NDP votes to strip toughest socialist language from party books

MONTREAL — Tom Mulcair is calling his party’s weekend policy convention a critical pivot _ one where the NDP wheeled away from stridently socialist language and solidified its embrace of cutting-edge campaign techniques in advance of a 2015 election.

New Democrats voted overwhelmingly Sunday to strip most of the references to socialism from the preamble to the party constitution, including the support of “social ownership” and business-unfriendly language.

In its place is an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink statement that refers to the party’s social democratic “roots,” removing inequalities in society, and Mulcair’s main focus on sustainable economic development.

“That’s a better way for us to reach out beyond our traditional base, talk to Canadians who might share our vision, who might share our goals, but who weren’t too sure,” Mulcair said at an end-of-convention news conference.

“The goal of the exercise is to be able to communicate to a larger public, what social…